SOCIAL COMPETENCIES AND THEIR RELEVANCE FOR ENGINEERS

In today's professional world, not only specialist knowledge is important, but above all competencies and abilities which relate to the handling of specialist knowledge, the so-called interdisciplinary key qualifications or social competencies. This includes knowledge but also the answers to questions like: What can I do with my knowledge? Can I transfer it into the new process-oriented forms of workgroup work and project organization? These qualifications are needed in relation with professional and methodological competencies and are more and more becoming the epitome of a new general education. However, their teaching in schools, vocational training and universities leave much to be desired. Also in connection with the new demands on study programs resulting from the initial Bologna Process with regard to qualifications that promote professionalization, there are only a few concrete curricular ideas or teaching materials. The following paper attempts to identify approaches to the teaching of social competences, in addition to technical competences, in order to provide important vocational qualification of engineers. Our contribution is dedicated to this necessary extension of the curricula for engineers.